


Destiny (a choice we never really make)

by orphan_account



Series: Original [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Character Study, Eara has Some Serious Problems, Fallen Heroes, Implied Evil King, Morally Ambiguous Characters, implied emotional abuse, mentions of transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-24 18:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20018884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: She knows she loves to deeply, but she simply can't help it. She has to try, destiny be damned....Eara is the Keeper of Knowledge, but that doesn't mean she can't make mistakes. It doesn't mean she was never stupid.It doesn't mean she isn't broken.





	Destiny (a choice we never really make)

Maybe it was meant to be, maybe it wasn’t. 

She didn’t care. 

If it was her destiny to stand at his side, to watch as the persecution of her people continued, watched as he wiped out everyone who could stand in his way, then she would. She would stay beside him and watch them burn, watch them crumble and fall in pools of gasoline and water.

As long as he stayed safe.

It didn’t matter. Nothing did, she’s sworn an oath to the kingdom, to  _ him _ , and she wouldn’t go back on her promise. (It didn’t matter that her chest still stung every time he called her  _ he _ or if she felt like she was head deep in quicksand, this was her king, and she swore to protect him first and foremost; her ideals came second.)

But then. Then she was faced with a different reality.

A different destiny.

Her new destiny came in the form of a shadowed heart, a soul just as broken as hers was. Jeanis and her crew were rough around the edges, demanding, and there was no way they were looking for a short, 16-year-old  _ boy(girl) _ to fight with them. 

But Jeanis could answer her riddle;  _ wanted _ to answer the riddle and so she let her. (She didn’t regret it.)

And she loved them. Learned to love them. 

Loved the way Jeanis insisted on throwing Tarin into a lake every time he said something ‘inappropriate’ around her. Loved the way Urian and Ricoro stole any and all books to give to her. Loved the way the group never assumed or asked her gender, just went with it. Loved the way they loved her. 

It makes sense then, that her love continued even after she lost trust in them. 

Tarin was wild and reckless, crass and kind, but he was not someone she wanted to get close to, ever. Maybe, she thinks, that’s why she wasn’t surprised when the truth came out. Maybe that's why she could stand tall against him while the best people she ever knew crumbled around her. 

(Tarin was a  _ leader _ , and the good of the world came before the health of a friend.

Majority over the individual was the saying, after all.)

Jeanis was rude and angry, soft around the edges with a soul of molten rock and innate knowledge of people that went over everyone else’s heads. Despite everything that happened - her betrayal, the fight, the death - she was still the woman who solved the riddle; the person who saved her, and so she couldn’t hate her. No matter how hard she tried. All she could do was join the remnants of her friends in wishing for a good ending (not happy, no, but content, peaceful).

(Maybe Jeanis was destined to fall, she thinks, but she doubts it.

The woman was always insistent on carving out her future.)

Ricardo was indifferent and calculating. A stuffed bear with a heart of battered glass and fortified mind. He was brilliant and devastating, just as dishonest as Tarin but with a better intention behind his sugarcoated words. (He never listened to her, despite her attempts to help him - a callus man to the end.) It was fitting then, perhaps, that he fell the exact way she told him he would; at the hands of his shady ideals. 

(He was balanced on a cliff, and when he jumped - or was he pushed? - no one caught him.

His search for freedom clipped his wings - but she’d never seen him burn brighter.)

Allianna was trusting and naive, but stressed out and sworn in a way no one could understand. (She wonders, looking back at her time with her king if breaking is the price of the golden crown.) The princess was emotional and had more pride than anyone else, even Jeanis, but listened to everyone equally and strived for a world without the monarchy. Allianna didn’t fall, like the others, she stumbled and dodged. But she still didn’t get her happy ending.

(Day-in a day-out spent in a large area, but still confined to a destiny she never chose.

The weight of the crown is a boulder, indeed.)

Urian was...different. She never lost trust in him, not like the others. She simply loved him, and that was enough at the time. Instead, she lost faith through that love and gained a trust stronger than she ever thought possible. 

Urian was strong-willed and patient, fragile and indecisive, constantly looking for a way out. He was nervous and sweet and an amazing friend, no matter what. He could make all her plans null and void with one world, was unpredictable and impossible to get a hold on. She thought she’d hate him at first but she loves him and that  _ enough because- _

Because he’s stood on his toes next to her, stood in front of her, and taken hit and punches that would knock anyone normal out - but not him. 

And she trusts him because of it, because he was willing to die for her, and that broke her more than he could ever realize.

( _ I’ll never let them get you. _

No, you won’t, she thinks, because they’ll get you instead.)

But she’d decided between the two paths laid out in front of her, had decided to stand by them, even when their fires burn out and all that's left are five glimmering puddles of gasoline and water. 

She made a promise, and she intends to keep this one.

She doesn’t care what others have to say about it.

Doesn’t care what others say about  _ her. _

Her job is to keep them safe.

Destiny be damned.


End file.
